How are the latest Syria airstrikes different from last year's?

The White House and Pentagon are insisting the airstrikes the U.S. carried out with its allies overnight differ from the strikes the U.S. conducted last April, after a different chemical weapons attack attributed to Syrian President Bashar Al Assad’s regime.

“Mission Accomplished!” President Trump tweeted Saturday morning, after what he declared as a “perfectly executed strike.” 

It was nearly exactly one year ago that the U.S. carried out airstrikes on Syria, marking one of Mr. Trump’s most decisive actions in office at the time. But, the U.S. believes, Assad’s regime was still responsible for yet another attack on Sunday.

So, how did these latest strikes differ from the ones conducted last year? Here are a few key distinctions.

The number of missiles fired

Secretary of Defense James Mattis said this year’s strikes involved about “double” the number of weapons. The Pentagon clarified on Saturday that this year’s strikes involved 105 missiles, compared to 59 last year.

The number of targets

This year, the U.S. and her allies locked in on three targets, all believed to be associated with the regime’s chemical weapons program, compared with just one target, an airbase, last year. 

The involvement of U.S. allies

The U.S. coordinated the attacks with British and French forces this year. Last year, the U.S. carried out the missile attacks on its own. 

Still, that doesn’t mean the overnight strikes share no similarities with last year’s. It remains to be seen whether the strikes will actually stop Assad from using chemical weapons. The Pentagon says the strikes have significantly crippled the regime’s chemical weapons ability.